Confirmed worldwide cases of the novel coronavirus broke the 10 million mark on Sunday morning, according to a database kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Nearly 500,000 people have died after contracting the virus, according to Johns Hopkins. As of Sunday morning, there were about 499,000 confirmed deaths linked t the virus.
The vast majority of confirmed cases and death have occurred in the U.S. More than 2.5 million people in the U.S. are confirmed to have contracted the virus — representing one-fourth of all worldwide cases. More than 125,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19.
The milestone comes as the U.S. experiences a new surge in cases. Thursday, Friday and Saturday all saw at least 40,000 new COVID-19 infections — the highest ever recorded since the pandemic began.